


what makes a marriage

by gotham_ruaidh



Series: Gotham Writes for Imagine Claire & Jamie [107]
Category: Outlander (TV), Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 20:55:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17291255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gotham_ruaidh/pseuds/gotham_ruaidh
Summary: Roger MacKenzie ponders what it means to marry in the Fraser family. One-shot inspired by the handfasting scene in 04x08.





	what makes a marriage

**Author's Note:**

> originally published at [Imagine Claire & Jamie](https://imagineclaireandjamie.tumblr.com/post/181681407606/brianna-asking-about-her-grandma-ellen-mod) on tumblr

Jamie looked up at the sound of footsteps on the wooden porch, immediately setting down his knitting to open his arms for his grandson.

“*Ciamar a tha thu, a ruaidh?*” he crooned as Roger gratefully slid the baby into his father-in-law’s arms, sinking onto the bench beside him.

“Of course he settles now that you’re holding him,” he groaned. “Puir lad is cutting another tooth.”

“Ach. Nothing a wee bit of whisky canna fix.”

The baby happily gurgled around Jamie’s proffered finger, Jamie holding him strong and steady against his lap.

“I thought I’d bring him out here – give Bree some space to finish packing our things for the Gathering.”

“That’s a good idea – not to mention, it gives her peace and quiet, away from the bairn.” The baby flailed his tiny, strong limbs in the empty space on the sides of Jamie’s knee. “God knows we love him, but he’s a right handful.”

“Jamie?” Claire’s voice echoed through the doorway. “Have you seen my belt?”

“It’s tied around the bedpost, where ye left it last night, Sassenach,” he grinned in reply. Roger rolled his eyes theatrically.

“Oh, come now, lad – ye’ve got to keep yer wife smiling, if ye’re to keep her wi’ ye out here in the wilderness.”

Jamie watched Roger’s eyes grow sober, his mouth pursed in a fine, thin line. He settled the baby to his other knee, then reached a reassuring hand to settle on his son-in-law’s back.

“I – I ken things are still…difficult between us, Roger. But ye’re doing the right thing, at the Gathering – making an honest woman out of my daughter, and making this wee one legitimate. No’ that he isna already, but – ”

“Do ye mind that when we handfasted, in Wilmington – that I did so wi’out yer knowledge and permission?”

Jamie looked at Roger as if he had three heads. “*What?*”

Nervously Roger cleared his throat. “It’s only right for a man to ask a woman’s father for his permission.”

Jamie snorted. “Do ye think Bree would even let me give my permission? Have ye ever had a conversation wi’ her, lad?”

“Aye – I ken that weel. Only – it should have been all proper. Wi’ a priest.”

The baby squealed as Rollo darted out of the cabin and softly woofed a greeting. Jamie gently bounced him up and down on his knee.

“Ye ken as well as I do, lad – handfasting is perfectly legal.”

“In Scotland. We’re no’ in Scotland, if ye havena noticed.”

“If it works for God in Scotland, Roger – than it will work for Him here just as well.” He squeezed Roger’s shoulder. “I’m honored for you to even bring it up – ye ken that. As well as ye ken that it’s no’ my place to give my blessing. The choice is Brianna’s, and Brianna’s alone.”

Now he swiveled the baby on his knee so that the baby faced him. He spoke again, not looking at Roger – gaze just transfixed on his grandson.

“Did ye ken that my own parents handfasted?”

Roger’s dark brows furrowed. “They did?”

“Aye – they handfasted the night they eloped from Castle Leoch, right under the noses of my uncles Colum and Dougal. They didna wed properly until just a week before my elder brother Willie was born – and they wed in the dooryard at Lallybroch. No’ in a kirk, though it was wi’ a priest.”

“I dinna ken the story – but I suppose that no parents were consulted in the match.”

“Och, no.” The baby’s drool pooled in Jamie’s palm, his tiny fist firmly grasping the finger of Jamie’s other hand. “Mam and Da wed for love. Neither of them had any business doing so – yet they did anyway. And then Claire and I – weel, we marrit proper in a kirk, wi’ a priest, because I insisted. But of course she was already married, so…”

“That was different,” Roger interrupted. “Frank hadna been born yet, so it didna matter.”

“It mattered to me, Roger. Dinna tell me ye’ve never seen a shadow fall across yer wife’s face, and know it to be that of a man ye dinna ken.”

“Aye – but so?”

“So – what I’m saying, *mo mhac*, is that Frasers dinna tend to have conventional marital arrangements. And you and Bree are holding up that tradition just fine. As long as ye get it properly blessed at the Gathering, that is.”

Roger snorted. “Fergus told me how he wed Marsali on a beach in Jamaica, and that the celebrant was a drunk who lived with his former mother-in-law?”

Now Jamie laughed, and the baby grinned in reply.

“Welcome to the family, lad.”


End file.
